Attitudes of Catholics in England and Wales to Child Sexual Abuse in the Catholic Church

Ryan, Gregory A.; Pound, Marcus

Abstract

Over 3000
self-identifying Catholics responded to an online
questionnaire. The sample was representative of
the Catholic population in England and Wales,
including regular and occasional churchgoers as
well as those who do not come to Mass but still
identify as Catholics.
The survey was designed to gather data on
three main areas regarding the Catholic Church’s
handling of child sexual abuse allegations, cases,
and response in England and Wales:
• What awareness do Catholics have of these
issues?
• What attitudes do Catholics hold towards the
Church’s handling of child sexual abuse within
the Church?
• What impact has child sexual abuse in the
Catholic Church in England and Wales had
on specific areas of the practice of ordinary
Catholics? That is, not only those entrusted
with a specific ministry or professional
responsibility, or affected directly by, child
sexual abuse in the Catholic Church.
The research was structured to explore how
these data are affected not only by standard
demographics (such as sex and age) but also by
frequency of Mass attendance as an indicator of
observable, normative Catholic behaviour.
In addition to supplementing the core Boundary
Breaking qualitative work by providing a window
onto the impact of the sexual abuse crisis on
Catholics who were not necessarily impacted
directly by it,3 the survey also stands as a piece
of statistical research into English and Welsh
Catholicism as at July 2022.

Citation

Ryan, G. A., & Pound, M. (2024). Attitudes of Catholics in England and Wales to Child Sexual Abuse in the Catholic Church. Centre for Catholiuc Studies

• Report Type: Research Report
• Online Publication Date: Oct 10, 2024
• Publication Date: Oct 10, 2024
• Deposit Date: Nov 6, 2024
• Publicly Available Date: Nov 6, 2024
• Public URL: https://durham-repository.worktribe.com/output/3080524
• Publisher URL: https://www.durham.ac.uk/media/durham-university/research-/research-centres/catholic-studies-centre-for-ccs/Boundary-Breaking-Quantitative-Report.pdf